FOCUS POLICE ELSEWHERE

From my distant port I was impressed to read of your County Council's
sensible priortizing when they agreed to no longer fund helicopters
for police to fly around and look for random marijuana grows they can
disrupt and uproot.

Talk about make-work projects -- the relentless and never-ending job
of police busting marijuana does nothing to increase public safety,
and does little to impact the illegal marijuana trade. If police truly
want to get a handle on the marijuana trade, they would promote
legalization and regulation of distribution instead of leaving control
in the hands of random, unmonitored growers.

Hawaii police have been busting pot dealers for decades, yet no one in
Hawaii who wants marijuana is likely to have much trouble getting it.
The inflated profits ensured by marijuana prohibition laws guarantee
that supply will always meet demand.

It's time to end marijuana prohibition and move pot into a legal,
regulated market. Growers would be easy to identify since they would
all do their business in the open instead of behind closed, secret
doors requiring lengthy police investigation to discover.

Best of all, more police will be available to deal with domestic
violence, sex crimes, drunk drivers and corporate fraud to name but a
few crimes that go neglected when police waste time playing farmers.

Stephen Heath

Clearwater, Fla.